(Newser)
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With Marco Rubio out of the race following a crushing defeat in his home state, attention has turned to the 163 delegates the senator amassed before Tuesday, which could be the key to the nomination in the event of a contested GOP convention. But Rubio won't be able to simply hand the delegates to another candidate, the Huffington Post explains. The rules for delegate allocation vary greatly from state to state, and of the 19 states where Rubio has won delegates, more than half—accounting for 134 of his delegates—require delegates to vote for him in the first convention ballot whether he's in the race or not. Only nine Rubio delegates are from states that release delegates to choose again as soon as their candidate drops out.

Rubio didn't endorse another candidate when he spoke to supporters in Miami on Tuesday night, though he made some comments clearly aimed at Donald Trump, Politico reports. "America needs a conservative movement, one that is based on ideas, principles," he said. "Not on fear. Not on anger. Not on preying on people's frustrations." Rubio—who finished nearly 20 points behind Trump in Florida—spent years building a base among establishment Republicans and mastering policy issues, only to be undone by a race in which anger was more important than policy and GOP voters abandoned the establishment, the Washington Post finds in a post-mortem on his candidacy.

Trump 2016, make America HATE again, not doing well enough to guarantee nomination! Don't stay silent, speak up & speak out now. He must be stopped!!!

jwwinner

Mar 16, 2016 3:15 PM CDT

Romancing the deranged Bible thumpers in the Tea Party was a bad move on Rubio's part. Now he's shut out and Cruz will be for the same reason. Note how Cruz's rhetoric has changed. Before he was shut out by evangelicals in the South, he was praising the Lord every few minutes. Not so much any more. Now he's talking deregulation and shutting down the EPA ... all directed at the Koch Bros and he's praising Israel non stop.... all for Sheldon Adelson.

KDickley

Mar 16, 2016 1:29 PM CDT

Stupor Delegates and the Electoral College should be outlawed, they serve no purpose that benefits citizens. And caucuses are stupid, too.